Personalized Algorithmic Diets: Promising or Impractical?

Licensed psychologist Alexis Conason, whose New York City practice focuses on issues such as overeating disorders and weight-loss surgery, maintains that there’s no need for personalized algorithmic diets. Rather, she suggests that we count on the personalized diets already available to all of us — our “appetitive systems,” which signal when we’re hungry, what we should eat and how much we should eat.

“It seems absurd to go through a high-tech personalized diet plan when people can just tune into their own signals using techniques like mindful eating,” says Conason, author of The Anti Diet Blog. “It is a commentary on the state of our culture that we think we need to go through this whole process of invasive testing to tell us what we already innately know. If we can only relearn how to trust ourselves and listen to our bodies.”

Dr. Alexis Conason

Dr. Alexis Conason is a licensed psychologist in private practice in New York City. Her office is conveniently located on the border between the Upper East Side and Midtown East neighborhoods of Manhattan. She specializes in the treatment of overeating disorders, body image, and psychological issues related to bariatric surgery. She also treats people struggling with sexual functioning, depression, anxiety, adjustment problems, relationship issues, and other psychological issues. Please contact her to see if she can help you.